New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-10-09
"FRA BA WRIT EAR AY."
THE GOPHER" IN THE SrRATFOhD
FPITAPH.

Esi
Tbere is n class of writer's well known in the
editorial rooms of newspapers and magazines VINO
are usually disposed of in this way the editor
after reading two or three pages Of the 'contribu
ton they bring, has it returned at once with
thanks, and summoning the office boy III hoI
haste, gives him orders of terrifying strictneSs
never to let those persons in again. lie Iheh
returns to his desk and breathes freer Two
members of this dreaded tribe have managed, IN
some mysterious way, to procure the puDhca'ioh
in "Tbe North American Review" OF artcIes
unon an alleged cipher in Shakespeare's epitaph'
Good frnd. for Jesus sake forbeare'" etc'
We say mysterious. because it is indeed strange
IN find in n perodical of such standing. and thus
croveIv presented 10 mankind, what providence
clearly DESIGNED for the waste basket. But IrovI-
dcncc. as Mr. Henry George has taught u.s. nhos
IT, hard to have it's own way about any th'hB'
even with his cooperation, and so long as thiS
continues TO be vale Of tears, we must learn
TO become accustomed to surprises.
But this being So some who do not read the
articles may Get the impression that evidence
has been adduced giving rise to suspicious IN
the minds Of intelligent persons that there Is
n ciphcr in the Stafford cpitaph. We hasten 10
assure our readers that nothing OF the KIND has
occurred. There has simply been new I'uS'ra-
ton of the havoc even IA slight indulgence oil the
pacOnian mania may work In the human lntellec'
Just now, when threatened with HOOD
Of ciphcrs from the plays, it may be worth wh''e
TO ret this tiny tdclct Of ciphcrs from the cptaph
out Of the way There is other reason ior
giving it any serious consideration whatever
In fact, we did our best to persuade ourselves
that the whole affair brilliant burlcspue
upon Ignatus Donncly. We tried to convince
ourselves that Messrs. Hugh Black and EDWARD
Gordon Clark were two new and promising
humorsts but we could not persevcrc in the race
OF lofty faulty amounting TO religious en-
thusasm.
They have an advantage at the outset in the
fact that the mere suggestion OF cIpher Ireuls-
roscs a certain class Of minds to believe IN the
existence Of a mystery. But there is nothing new
in this literary pasimc. The monks VINO. aS
Mr. Ipclly tells us, used to while away lhe'r
iGl. hours carly in the Christian era WORKING
ont the elaborate ciphcrs they found in the New
Testament could have given Mcssrs. Black and
Clark "Dointsr for their work Is sadly crude
and incohercnt. The intelligent schoolboy who
could not by their methods find in the Sermon
On the Mount n cipher giving q recipe for n salad
or n hacchanalian love song in any ten lines
Of Paradise Lost" should at once be diverted to
manuel labor as being too dull for intellectual
pursuits
Mr.. Blacks "wondcrful discovery as Mr.
Clark calls it. rests upon an alleged fac-simile OF
the cptaph found in some editions OF hhghI
in which certain letters are larger than Others
This is not the existing cpitaph. which IS neatly
cut The present eravcstonc replaced former
one about the middle Of the last century, III Is
assumed that these inequalities and pccuhartlcs
81 nunctuotion-wc all know how exact ana
scientific lettering, and above all punctuatloh'
was In Shakcspcarc's day-havc been preserved
without n Slip. though the fact is that even inc
existing cpitaph is rarely printed correctly Even
a rcriod that appears in the middle OF "oru
in some cditions-and not IN otherS-
* treated with as much reverence as one
Of the gospels MIR. Black recalled
Lord Bacon's hi-tcral cipher for Roman ana
ItaHc letters, and assumed The could assume
ANYTHING short Of n cardinals hat that 1t could
he applied equally well to the large ana sIna''
letters OF the Stratfori cpitaph, and dong So
fonul the following meaningless block Of capitals